The first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians wrapped up last night with "The Prophecy Comes True." We ended on a series of twists. Kronos is trying to return to topple Olympus! Percy's friend Luke is working with Kronos and betrays Percy! Scandal! Calamity! What happens next?
Well, if you want to know, you can always read the next book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, The Sea of Monsters. If you're hoping to see new episodes, you may be waiting a while, because Disney has not yet officially renewed Percy Jackson and the Olympians for season 2.
That said, things are in the works. Co-creator Jonathan E. Steinberg told the Los Angeles Times that the writers have been having “fascinating conversations,” with “lots of moving pieces” to figure out. They want to find ways to include as many characters and set pieces from Riordan's books as possible, and there are a lot of them. The cast and crew want to tell this story all the way through Riordan's 2009 book The Last Olympian, which wraps up this leg of Percy's journey. They want to bring in the titan Hyperion, Percy's Cyclops half-brother Tyson, and Hades' children Nico and Bianca. It's a whole wild world of Greek gods and heroes out there. All they need is the go-ahead.
And executive producer Rebecca Riordan — wife of Rick — even revealed on Threads that at least one script for Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2 exists. "I love the first script for two and I even successfully pitched a couple of things that were included," she wrote. "We got a lot of world building out of the way in one so hopefully some smooth sailing ahead."
Was Percy tempted to join Luke in his plot to topple the gods?
While we wait for word on a second season, the cast and crew are dissecting some of the twists from this finale, including Luke's betrayal of Percy. “One thing I feel people always gloss over is that I don’t think that Percy and Luke weren’t friends; Percy feels like is his older brother,” said star Walker Scobell, who plays Percy Jackson himself. So for Luke to first try and recruit Percy into Kronos' scheme and then to attempt to kill him when Percy refuses is painful for our favorite demigod.
The situation is made extra complicated because Percy sort of sees where Luke is coming from. The gods, as Percy himself points out, are a mess, always backstabbing each other and being carelessly cruel to their children. Luke, a son of Hermes, knows what that's like firsthand. So Percy is sympathetic to Luke's frustration, but according to Scobell, "he doesn’t agree with the way that Luke is choosing to go about that.”
The bit where Luke tries to recruit Percy, by the way, is added for the show; in the book, Luke just tried to kill him. “The temptation is what makes the tragedy, and losing sight of what he’s signing up for is part of Luke’s tragedy,” Steinberg said. “He’s so angry that he’s willing to sign up with anybody who’s willing to give him a space for his anger to be used.”
Charlie Bushnell, who plays Luke, is a fan of that change. “I like that they switched that for the show where he tries to recruit him, because I think it’s going to make people more empathetic towards Luke and what he’s feeling towards the gods,” the actor said.
Now that Luke has been exposed, he can plot in the open, which is an interesting development we could see Bushnell play out if and when Disney renews the show for season 2. Fingers crossed.
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